Imah Aba
by Taygeta
Summary: Post-Family First. What happens after Tony leaves with Tali? My Tiva head canon.
Disclaimer: NCIS characters are not mine.

Dedication: To all my fellow Tiva fans. While I haven't updated some stories, perhaps this will help with your help canon as it helped me to express mine.

 **Imah. Aba.**

By Taygeta

Tony struggled with the bag on his shoulder as it rattled with the sound of BPA-free plastic sippy cups and food containers. Traveling to Paris used to be a little bit more glamorous, but he wouldn't trade all that past glamour for the sleeping Tali in the stroller he was trying to maneuver through the Champ de Mars.

As he rounded the stroller so that he could sit on a nearby bench, he didn't want to admit it, but perhaps Senior had been right about getting the Super Deluxe stroller with extra storage capacity. Tony had been focused on traveling light - but he quickly learned that there was nothing light about traveling with a kid.

This was the beginning of a long road ahead of learning parenting lessons the hard way.

Seating the bag on the bench, he let himself stretch out and tried to people watch at the tourists and families around him. But it was hard to pay attention to everyone else when so much had changed in his own life, all the big and little moments that had rolled him right round to sitting on a bench in Paris...with a baby.

He could almost imagine Tali's Imah sitting alongside him in some weird combination of past, present, and future. The curl of Ziva's hair glistening in the sun and the brightness of her smile with the Eiffel Tower as backdrop was a vision that made Tony catch his breath a bit.

His eyes glanced at his daughter, still sleeping soundly. Yet, he couldn't help but speak his heart - "I wish your mom was here."

She had been there once. They had sat on this very bench in some whirlwind trip to Paris. She wanted to move along and he wanted to just take a moment to just soak it all in. He had - delicately - grabbed her arm in that playful, flirty way they did everything together and, for a while, he was able to get her to sit and enjoy the view.

He had been here three times since he had arrived. Each time he had been trying to enjoy the view, to live life one step at a time, but it's always challenging when you've spent a long time waiting for the other shoe to drop. Especially when you know that it's going to drop.

"Is anyone sitting here?"

A familiar voice rang in his ear.

He didn't dare look up, but replied, "Someone did once."

"Can she again?"

His eyes glanced at her, and there it was - the curl of Ziva's hair glistening in the sun and the brightness of her smile with the Eiffel Tower as backdrop. Well, except that the curl was peeking out beneath a raggedy baseball cap and her eyes were covered by sunglasses.

She lifted up the sunglasses and met his eyes. He noted a cut healing on the side of her face. It made him want to reach out, but he held himself back.

"It's a free country," he tried to say casually.

As she sat down, her eyes went immediately to Tali in the stroller.

"Oh, my baby girl, how you've been through so much already..."

"Our," emphasized Tony. "Our baby girl."

She looked at him and nodded, "That's right."

There was a further span of awkward silence.

Ziva continued, "So you got my note in Israel?"

He nodded tersely, "Note is putting it lightly. More like Russian novel with multiple film screenings attached. Those Mossad people really have some nerve with their storytelling." He glanced at Tali and said, "You learn from the best, hmm?"

"I wanted to tell you, Tony. From the moment, I was sure."

"Then why didn't you?"

"I was pregnant and on the run, unsure who at Mossad was my friend or my foe, but I needed them. I could not risk going back to the team either way. It's funny how life works when there's a price on your head." She lifted her shoulders in a resigning shrug and gave short laugh, "You know, I was even thinking I could send you a note with a pigeon carrier."

He pursed his lips, holding back a laugh. He hadn't heard a Zivaism in a long time. He sure had missed them.

"They told me everything. Well as much as they ever tell anyone, I guess." Tony had received a debrief when he arrived in Israel. He was immediately sent to Mossad headquarters where he spent several hours learning about Ziva's whereabouts the last three years. The first couple of months after their farewell, she had been fine, but the ghosts of her past kept on chasing her. There had been a price on her head, a bounty fed by revenge and vengeance. Mossad was her best bet to be kept safe and their best plan was that she hid herself away.

For three years.

Three years he could never get back.

Now that she was "dead", she could live a quiet life. Tony had been sent to Paris to reunite Ziva with their daughter, but aside from that directive he wasn't sure what was next. He wasn't sure if Ziva knew either.

Tony took a deep breath, "So...what would you have said?"

"Hmm?" The sunglasses were now perched on her hat and now her eyes met his fully, as if they had never really left.

"If you could have told me, what would you have said?"

"Well...it changed as Tali got older, but before I had her, I always thought I would come back to DC and knock on your door. You'd be joking and nervous because I wouldn't have called to let you know I was back in town. If there was a distance, I would have just told it very plainly. I had no idea if you had moved on, but I would have wanted you to know. If there was no distance, I would have looked at you liked this and said, 'The most wonderful thing has happened.'"

Tony didn't look away, "'Wonderful' isn't quite enough of a word, is it?"

She shook her head.

Every few minutes he watched her glance at the stroller, caught in the struggle between wanting to hold her daughter and wanting to just watch her sleep peacefully.

"So...Aba, huh?"

Ziva smiled, "She calls you that?"

"I believe someone taught her that."

Suddenly, Tony felt Ziva grab his hand - giving it a tight squeeze.

"Tony, I'm so sorry. I talked about you all the time. I wanted her to know everything about you. I didn't know if I would - or she would -"

Ziva struggled to find her words, to keep her composure.

Tony broke the distance of space between them and held her close, "Shhh…don't. I know...I know." Holding her, it felt so much more real - and right - that this was the story that should unfold. "I"m so just so glad you're alive. When I thought…"

He didn't let himself finish that sentence, he wanted to pull himself as far away as possible from the darkness of those days only a few short weeks ago.

"So what now?" Ziva asked.

"Everything. Anything."

"What about NCIS?"

Tony shrugged, "I left. How else do you think Mossad told me where you were? I had to promise them I was willing to leave everything behind. Besides, one of us has to live an obscure and relatively quiet life because they're not supposed to exist."

Ziva looked over at Tali who was stirring slightly, "When do you think we'll have to tell her about that?"

"Not anytime soon, I hope. I want to enjoy every single day, especially ones without awkward parenting conversations."

Ziva laughed and Tony was so glad that sound wasn't just a memory. He leaned in and gave her a long kiss. For a moment, they were just a couple, a new family, in the most romantic city in the world.

As they sat enjoying a quiet that had always escaped them, Tali emerged from her afternoon nap. Sleepy-eyed, she peered out of her stroller and smiled at the sight of her parents.

"Imah…" a babyish voice said, arms reaching out automatically.

Ziva reached down and picked up Tali from her stroller. The weeks that had separated them were closed in a tight embrace that Ziva never wanted to let go of, "Yes, Imah's here."

Tony held his family close and said, "And Aba too."

End! Feedback is appreciated!


End file.
